eli5 Why Black objects tend to absorb light, while white reflects most of it?
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Light is electric energy suspended in air. Atoms are basically little electric energy things, so they interact with light. But the interaction is very specific, i.e. things absorb very specific colors. This is because the energy of the light has to be similarly sized to the energy storage of the atom. This is like harmonizing a song, if you play the right sound it works, otherwise it sounds horrible. It’s called a resonant frequency, where basically light is the frequency of the oscillating eclectic energy in air, and the atom has the ability to increase it’s electrical energy. So if the light hits the atom, it has to resonate at the same energy frequency. The light is absorbed when the atom resonates and sucks up the energy. Otherwise it reflects (not black, which is the absense of light, but some other color that changes) or has no interaction. White light is all colors. So something white reflect all light frequencies, and black absorbs them all. It’s because the atom is made of a center nuclear with positive charge that balances the electric charge and it’s quantized (i.e. quantum theory) meaning it has precise amount (i.e. precise colors/frequencies resonate)
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